Admissions Applying for Ph.D program in physics and got 166 quant GRE

[xdrgnh]

I got a 166 on the quant section of my GRE today. I also took the PGRE and believe I did quite well on it, at least 900+. Is a score of 166 on the quant section considered good for someone applying for a physics Ph.D program or can anything short of a 170 hurt my application?

 

[Dr. Courtney]

I got a 166 on the quant section of my GRE today. I also took the PGRE and believe I did quite well on it, at least 900+. Is a score of 166 on the quant section considered good for someone applying for a physics Ph.D program or can anything short of a 170 hurt my application?

Grad school applications depend on the whole package. Grades in BS program, reputation of BS program, research, recommendations, publications, etc.

It's not a disaster, but it won't pave the way into theoretical physics at a top 10 school. Experimentalists won't worry a bit about it.

 

[Student100]

I got a 166 on the quant section of my GRE today. I also took the PGRE and believe I did quite well on it, at least 900+. Is a score of 166 on the quant section considered good for someone applying for a physics Ph.D program or can anything short of a 170 hurt my application?

166 is probably somewhere in the mid 90th percentile for physics applicants/maybe low 90's for math majors. Or in other language, you're stressing for no good reason.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Or in other language, you're stressing for no good reason.

And this is maybe the fourth or fifth thread you've posted that's stressing for no good reason. If stress bothers you that much, I think you might want to consider whether science is really the right career for you. You can wait two years for telescope time - and then have it rain. You can work on a detector for a decade, only to have the accelerator blow up. Or the detector catch fire. You can be on the verge of making an important calculation - only to find someone beat you to it. You can have a grant application or a paper in limbo for months, with nobody at the agency or journal having any explanation. This is all part of the job. If you find the application process this stressful, will you be happy with a career with an order of magnitude more stress?